German workers win right to 28-hour week
German workers won a fight for better work-life balance. Although Germany has the standard of 35 hours working week, the workers can choose to work for 28 hours. Labor union, IG Metall made an agreement with the representative of more than 700 companies like Daimler, the carmaker, and Bosch. This agreement is limited to the metal and electrical sector but it will probably roll out to other sectors. The flexibility of hours worked would help workers to spend more time with their children and families. Companies like Bosch will offer the same pay rate and benefits to their workers despite the reduction in hours worked. On the other hand, a lot of companies see this agreement as a burden which will make it difficult for them to survive.
2 comments:
While it seams that less hours of work would lead to a decrease in productivity, Germany might eventually see the opposite effect. If there are less hours in the day, workers might have more of an incentive to get more done with less time. They might also receive better quality work from employees that have a longer leisure time for rest which could lead to less burn out of overworked employees.
German workers are looking for the balance between work and life. Now they have a chance to work less hours and spend more time with their families. This is good for a country's happiness, but not good for the economy because it would affect the productivity. If the Germany industries, however, are highly automatic, I think it wouldn't affect that much in the future.
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